Category: Prophetic Stream

Posted on

May 3

 

Jeremiah 2-4

We are in the Prophetic Stream as we read from The Living Bible this week.

 

Commentary by Dr. Drake Travis

Dear Lord: The prospects of the ungodly are oh so grim. The end of the disobedient is certain. I pray we are ready and alert souls who will have ministry in mind as we encounter those who have come the the end of themselves and are therefore ready to hear of The Savior. Amen.

 

Here are some statistics: Jeremiah spent 20 years warning Judah to repent, 20 years amid the sabres of war as Babylon was sacking the southern Kingdom, and 20 years in retrospect lamenting the destruction of the land of God; Judah and Israel.

 
2 – The nation has fallen so far. God wants to know, and Jeremiah is assigned to tell them: “you once loved me so much. I defended you and fed you. Anyone who threatened you paid severely.  Now you will worship anything as long as it isn’t Me. There is a national attitude of “whatever buddy!” toward God.  Even the priests and leaders are given to Baal and Molech.”  God is going to continue pursuing Judah and will be trying to love them, but things do not look good.  They were so free and prosperous and strong but have turned themselves into slaves. They rebel at every turn.  They have become more proficient at sinning than those who have had no training in goodness (and vice versa!) It’s as if those who were lost all along come to the Israelites to learn about ‘how to be better sinners.’  It is so utterly pathetic what these people have turned themselves into.  They are dirty dirty dirty, lusting 24/7, anyone who comes to minister to them gets murdered, …and they think that a foreign government is going to be of aid to them!
 
3 – Israel, called out to be God’s bride, has turned itself into a trolling whore that will expend herself on anyone but her husband, and she doesn’t come home.  God is willing to forgive and reunite with them but their sinfulness is a bit more appealing to them at the time.  Judah held onto God a bit longer (the southern Kingdom) but they have slouched in their pursuit of God too.  Manasseh is king at present.  He’s the one who had Isaiah killed and he is turning out to be the darkest leader the Semitic world has ever seen.  His Satanic wretchedness far outdid Ahab. Manasseh was throwing live babies and young children into fires at evening rituals as a sacrifice to Molech.  Here was Jerusalem – no city had been so blessed, yet no place or people on earth had descended so far down from so far up. They had even become more wicked than their relatives in Israel; the northern kingdom. Judah was disaffectionately dubbed, “the adulterous wife”. And that was just the tip of the matter as for how bad they had become.
 
4 –  The opening of ch. 4 sounds like, “this is your final chance to exit from the highway to destruction…”  God wants to see total transformation of His people, yet they are bent on wickedness.  and the enemy army is on the march to come flatten them!  The sword is raised, a lion is at the gate, their chariots and horses are coming, war and death and crushing will engulf Judah. It is going to be awful – and Jeremiah can see it prophetically. It will happen.  The first influx of Babylonian soldiers enter Judah in 605 B.C. – 21 years after Jeremiah is called into ministry. The siege is progressively moving across Judah until 586 B.C. when Jerusalem is sacked and the Temple is destroyed.  Jeremiah is warning them for two decades to turn but God’s people are stubborn, dull to truth, skilled at deviance, and moronic about righteousness. It’s amusing that, as the enemy is closing in on them, some of the Judeans are pausing to put on mascara and “doll up” themselves.  That’s as dopey as the town being on fire, and stopping the work of dousing the fire so you can have time to wash and paint your house … before it burns to an ash heap!  Something is really wrong with these people. The sad thing is that it is an illustration of all of us.
Posted on

April 26

 

Isaiah 65-Jeremiah

We are bridging between two books in the Prophetic Stream today as we read from the International Standard Version this week.

 

God, we pray that all of us would realize the gravity and seriousness of our callings the way Isaiah and Jeremiah did. There are nations yet to bring into Your Light – and you will use us to do that as we are willing and available.  Amen

Isaiah is offering parts of the vision of the new heavens and the new earth.  It is the answer to prayer for a longing earth and the people who have been hoping for God’s Kingdom to come in full. Trademarks of this time are that new nations are “taken aboard”, a new name is given to all, the atmosphere of God reigns, there is a new heaven and earth…because what has been hoped for has arrived at our current presence.  What was always thought of to be “up there” is now among us; that is a new heaven and earth. <—-the fascinating concept could be discussed for 1,000 years! and it probably will still be a fascinating discussion 1,000 from now. The evil is separated and gone. Peter speaks of this in 2 Pt. 3:10ff, John speaks of this in its final state in Rev. 21-22.  Revelation especially expands on Isaiah’s vision described.  Other aspects is that people will be living the length of years similar to lifespans before Noah’s flood.

Isa. 65:20 asserts that those who die under 100 years of age will be accursed souls who died in their youth. Apparently a time is coming when we will be seeing Methuselah-types again.  Won’t this be a wonder?  Plenty and prosperity and peace will be common. Tension and frustration will be unheard of.
 
66 – Isaiah talks clearly about those who are received of the Lord and those who are rejected.  There have been people who have lived by the rules of their own choosing and obeying which rules of God that suited them [vv. 3-4]. Obeying what we want to obey when we want to obey it – is not obeying. This great book of Isaiah then ends with comforting words akin to tender motherhood for his beloved followers and terrible reckoning for the disobedient.  There are several of Jesus’ quotes that come from this portion of Isaiah.  And this ends the words of one of the greatest writers of all time.  For his powerful and poignant contribution to Israel’s prophecy, Isaiah was executed by the diabolical king Manasseh; son of the righteous king Hezekiah.  Hebrews 11:37 talks of Isaiah’s execution wherein he joined the other saints in glory.
 
Jer. 1 – Jeremiah had the dismal task of warning Jerusalem of being over run by Babylon.  He is called to ministry and he is called to a ministry in a time when people don’t want to hear it.  He ministered in Jerusalem during its final decades before Babylon stormed in  … and there is no record of even one convert to encourage his work. Truth is he could have volunteered to go to Nineveh or Babylon and be among an elite writing team for a literary revival was in progress. But he followed his difficult call from God and he stuck to his post and henceforth his writing is still touching hearts nearly 2700 years later. This instead of having his work be celebrated, his life lived in luxury, only to have his writing become filler for an archaeological dig along with his own bones.   He was reluctant to accept his calling from God. He was about 20 years of age when his calling came. He was intimidated and felt he was too young to affect anything. But he was to tell them that an army was coming – they were as motivated and angry as a boiling pot ready to pour over the land. His calling is rich with imagery, ominous in its pulsing immensity and encouraging in that God would be present and walk him through his assignment step by step and word by word. Jeremiah is in for an intense “rest of his life”!
Posted on

April 19

 

Isaiah 60-64

We are in the Prophetic Stream today getting close to the end of the book of Isaiah. We are using the Good News Translation this week.

 

Commentary by Dr. Drake Travis

The section today bursts forth as a song of the Messianic Age.  The Lord is here and in full and good news is spreading over all the earth and the illustration spills right into being the glory of heaven.

 
60 – Isaiah is one of the greatest writers that ever lived and this is certainly among Isaiah’s sections. It’s even among the most wonder-filled chapters in the whole Bible.  It talks of a grand gathering, people and wealth are coming to Jerusalem, the testifying, the sacrifices, it’s the homecoming of history and “the LORD will make His Temple more glorious than ever ” v. 7. There will be great service in Jerusalem. When the chapter morphs into talk that can only be interpreted as paradise itself with unimpeded access to God it is altogether a marvel.
 
61 – What we read in the first three verses of 61 is Isaiah talking of Jesus.  Jesus knows it is Him and quotes this when He is speaking in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:18f).  This is prophecy fulfilled 700 years later.  This is a time of great restoration.  The Messianic theme that actually started in Isaiah 59:20 is still proceeding.  Israel will have servants, and wealth, and joy.  The praises to the LORD will be coming from all nations – the testimony of what God has done in this one nation will amaze the whole earth that much.
 
62 – The splendor here is the imagery of a wedding.  It is enchanting as a wedding also. The symbolism is matched in ways by John’s writing at the end of Revelation when “the New Jerusalem” is coming down like a bride preparing to meet her husband. The surprises and excitement of a reunion also come into play too. There is food; bread and wine in abundance and phenomenal worship.  Is it fine to call this a dinner/theater gone into a colossal mode?!  And most of all the LORD is coming to save.
 
63 – there is a peculiar insertion here – a mentioning of Edom; it could be a reference to all the enemies of God and Jerusalem who will be trampled and defeated permanently. It is certainly a break in the literature to interrupt all the glory and worship and celebration to put this in such a run of wonderful things.  However it is part of celebrating to defeat an enemy, and revel with our victorious LORD.  Isaiah resumes abruptly; talking of the goodness and love of the LORD and his precise care and provision. The chapter ends with a prayer for mercy; beseeching God to treat them according to God’s goodness v.s. their character and lack thereof. This is a theme we have seen before in Isaiah.
 
64 – and Shazzam, 64 arrives and we are not looking way forward to glorious things and themes and events. Isaiah just wants God to show and make himself known.  Things are difficult; attitudes across the nation are crass, the city is in ruins, beautiful places have been deserted and Isaiah is pleading for the LORD to come to them.